Intel Z790 vs B760: Which Should You Choose?

If you’re looking to buy a 12th, 13th, or 14th generation Intel CPU, you’re going to have to choose a motherboard that will likely use either a Z790 or B760 chipset. These are the two most popular high-performance options for Intel Alder Lake (12th gen) and Raptor Lake/Raptor Lake Refresh (13th and 14th gen) CPUs. The Intel Z790 chipset is aimed at high-end builds, while the B760 targets more midrange builds. That said, you can also have high-end B760 platforms, or midrange Z790 systems, so what are the main differences between these two chipsets? Let’s take a closer look.

• Z790 allows overclocking. B760 does not.
• Z790 offers more PCI Express lanes.
• Z790 offers more I/O, USB ports.
• Z790 has more robust power delivery.

Those are the headline differences between the chipsets, and although Z790 is more fully-featured than B760, the latter still covers all the basics that most PC users need for a powerful system. Let’s discuss them in more granular detail below. We will begin with this chart showing the major differences in PCIe lanes and I/O. The source for this chart is Intel's site for both Z790 and B760.

This is the flagship chipset for Intel’s 12th, 13th, and 14th-gen CPUs, so motherboards with this chipset typically offer every bell and whistle available for the platform. The most important feature of the Z790 chipset is support for overclocking whereas B760 does not, so you can end your internal chipset debate right here just by deciding if you want to tinker with overclocking or not. If you want to overclock your CPU beyond the speeds listed on the spec chart, you will need an “unlocked” Intel CPU with the letter “K” in its name and a Z790 board, full stop.

That said, overclocking is a dying art these days, with a lot of people choosing to keep their CPU at its stock settings. Today’s CPUs still overclock all on their own, but manual overclocking lets you push a CPU beyond these limits for some performance gains at the expense of generating more heat (and noise, typically). For a lot of folks, the trade-offs are simply not worth it, but that’s a decision you must make on your own.

The main draw for Z790 over B760 is it has more PCI Express lanes. For example, Z790 offers 20 PCIe 4.0 chipset lanes, whereas B760 has just ten, which could limit your use of multiple M.2 PCIe SSDs.

Note that both chipsets offer four PCIe 4.0 lanes directly to the CPU, so if you just have one M.2 SSD in the top slot, it will be as fast as possible and the same speed on both chipsets. However, as you add more M.2 drives to the system, you start to tap into the chipset’s resources, and this is where Z790 and B760 begin to diverge.

On Z790 you can typically run four PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives in x4 mode on the chipset with no issues, but with B760 you’d only be able to run two drives via the chipset. You also start to run into issues with lanes sharing resources with other ports on B760 earlier than you would on Z790, but this only applies if you’re connecting multiple storage devices, either M.2 or SATA.

The Z790 chipset also offers up to eight SATA ports, whereas B760 only supports four. However, most people don’t have more than one or two SATA drives connected to their system, much less four, making this a perfect example of how Z790 offers a lot more options than B760, but for most people it probably won’t matter.

Z790 also platforms can also offer support for more USB ports, of varying speeds, but this also may not be a big deal depending on what you need. For example, Z790 supports ten USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, where B760 supports just six. For USB 3.2 Gen 2, the Z790 chipset offers up to ten ports, while the B760 supports just four. Finally, Z790 offers five USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 whereas B760 offers just two. Overall, you will have more fast USB ports with Z790 than you will with B760, but B760 boards will still offer a decent number of USB 2/3 ports, which is sufficient for most folks. Motherboard manufacturers mix and match the number and type of USB ports available on a per-board basis, so it really varies a lot depending on how high-end the board will be, and that's true for both chipsets.

Despite is midrange status, the B760 chipset offers more than enough for the vast majority of users. It still has all the latest features designed for peak performance, such as a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for the GPU, which is the fastest type currently possible, and it supports super-fast DDR5 memory too, including XMP 3.0 profiles for one-click memory overclocking.

Overall, nothing about this chipset is nerfed to the point of being terrible, so if you’re not connecting a ton of devices to your computer, it will likely be just fine. If you’re using just one or two M.2 drives, a single GPU, and don’t plan on overclocking, you can usually save some money by going with B760 over Z790 and use that extra cash for a faster CPU or GPU.

Though we are always going to be advocates for pure, unadulterated PC power, there are times when it’s fine to be economical. In this debate between chipsets, performance won’t necessarily change much between them for most, particularly if not overclocking, so it makes sense to spend your money wisely, and not pay for features you will never use.

That said, there is nothing wrong with getting a Z790 motherboard if you want to have the most options available to you, or if you just want options for the future. You could also consider an older Z690 board if the price is right. However, with the 700-series platform now being somewhat end-of-life since the Core Ultra 200-S series CPUs being out now with an all-new LGA 1851 socket, most people who are in the market now will probably not upgrade to a new CPU on this socket down the road, so choose wisely.

Therefore, the B760 chipset will make sense for more people than Z790, but as always, consider what you plan on doing with your build and buy what fits within your budget.